Romeo, Juliet and winemaker Warren Winiarski

We're not the only ones forever on the hunt for whimsical, delicious and oh-so-very-San Francisco hostess gifts, are we? Because we're all kinds of thrilled about Recchiuti Confections' new gift boxes (or all-for-yourself boxes, we won't tell) of burnt caramel truffles. The candies are adorned with images of Coit and Sutro towers, the Golden Gate Park Conservatory and, of course, a cable car, the work of artist Lance Rivers from the Mission district's Creativity Explored nonprofit. The sweets, a box of eight for $21, are available at Recchiuti's shop in the Ferry Building Marketplace, the Little Nib boutique outlet in the Mission and at www.recchiuti.com. Even sweeter: $2 from each box sold goes to Creativity Explored, a studio and gallery for artists with developmental disabilities.

Seems Napa winemaking pioneer Warren Winiarski, of Stag's Leap and Judgment of Paris fame, has taken up a second career. The man whose cabernet bested the French Bordeaux at the 1976 Paris tasting -- a victory that put California's wines on the global map -- has spent the last several summers teaching seminars at his alma mater, St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico. And we're not talking oenology. Last week, Winiarski's course material was Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet." Montagues and Cab-ulets? It may be time for a script rewrite.

You have to wonder about the people who run polls. In honor of National Fry Day last week, Red Robin commissioned a Harris Poll to answer the burning question: What would it take to make you part with your last french fry? Amazingly, not one person said, the blade of a Capulet, bent on revenge. But 33 percent said they would not sacrifice that last crispy potato to anyone at all. Among the more generous set, 23 percent were willing to share their fries with Ellen DeGeneres. And 11 percent of all Americans prefer soggy fries to crispy ones. Shudder.